This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure for details.
Hi Bold Bakers!
Pumpkin whoopie pies are a perfect fall twist on the old classic — and who can say no to pumpkin-flavored anything once the weather starts to get colder? These portable, cute little snacks are perfect to bring along while leaf-peeping!
The tender, cake-like spiced pumpkin cookie is filled with a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting that balances everything out perfectly. A lot of people use buttercream in their whoopie pies, and if that’s your thing — go for it! But I prefer the cream cheese frosting. It’s not as sweet as buttercream, and it holds up a little better than buttercream.
Who wants to bite into a whoopie pie and have all the filling squeeze out? Not me. I won’t stand for it. Get your pumpkin-flavor cravings fixed with these whoopie pies!
What Are Pumpkin Whoopie Pies?
Pumpkin whoopie pies are like the iconic cookie-cake sandwich, except the cakes are flavored with pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and a little pumpkin pie spice. It’s a simple batter, and the result is incredibly fluffy and cakey.
In between two of those delicious little cakes is homemade cream cheese frosting. If that isn’t your thing, then try my ermine frosting recipe. It’s not as sweet as buttercream but not as thick as cream cheese frosting.
What You Need To Make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Two baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Mixing bowls
- Piping bag with a large round tip
How To Make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
This is a really easy recipe and is bound to become a fall favorite. Here is how you make pumpkin whoopie pies (get the full recipe measurements lower down on the page):
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (165°C). Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- In a separate medium bowl, evenly stir together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt. Then mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
- Using your piping bag fitted with a large, round tip, pipe about 2 tablespoon-sized mounds of batter, about 3 inches apart, on your prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for about 10-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through until the cookies feel firm and turn golden. Let them cool for several minutes on the baking sheets before transferring onto a write rack to cool completely. Repeat piping and baking the cookies until you run out of batter.
- Once they have cooled completely, turn half of the cookies over so the bottoms are facing up.
- Using either a piping bag or an offset spatula, spread about 2-3 tablespoons of cream cheese frosting on the bottoms of the cookies, then sandwich the cookies with the unfrosted halves.
Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips For Making Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
- For the pumpkin puree in these cookies, you can use canned pumpkin or make my Homemade Pumpkin Puree.
- If you don’t have a piping bag, you can place the batter in a ziplock bag and snip a small corner off of the bag for piping. Or you can simply scoop the dough with a spoon.
- You can replace the cream cheese filling with either my vanilla buttercream or ermine frosting.
- These cookies are best the day they are made but you can easily halve the recipe instead of storing leftovers.
- Don’t have pumpkin pie spice? Make your own with my recipe.
- Make a 1/2 batch of my Cream Cheese Frosting to fill these little pies.
How Do I Store Pumpkin Whoopie Pies?
Whoopie pies are best served the day they are made. If you have any leftovers, though, you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one day.
Don’t Miss More Cookie Recipes
- Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The Internet’s Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Crazy Cookie Dough: One Base Dough, Endless Flavor Possibilities
- 3-Ingredient Shortbread Cookies
And don’t forget to buy my Bigger Bolder Baking Cookbook!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (12oz/340g) dark brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups (12oz/340g) Pumpkin Puree
- 1 cup (8floz/240ml) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs , at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups (15oz/426g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon Pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, Pumpkin Puree , oil, eggs and vanilla extract until well blended.
- In a separate medium bowl, evenly stir together the flour, Pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt, and then mix this with the wet ingredients until just combined.
- With a piping bag fitted with a large round tip, pipe about 2 tablespoon-sized mounds of batter about 3 inches apart on your prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for about 10-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cookies feel firm and turn golden. Let cool for several minutes on the baking sheets before transferring the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat piping and baking the cookies if you have any batter remaining.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, turn half of the cookies over so the bottoms are facing up.
- With a piping bag or offset spatula, spread about 2-3 tablespoons of Cream Cheese Frosting frosting on the bottoms of the cookies and then sandwich the cookies with the unfrosted halves.
- These cookies are best served the day they are made. If there are leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one day.
Fantastic recipe! My husband’s family is from PA and he LOVED it. Wanted to use my sweet pumpkins I had harvested… Well now I know what to make! The only change I HAD to do ( because I ran out of eggs) is I had to use ground flax instead of eggs… 1Tbsp of flax to 2of water makes an eggy consistency… Worked for us. They were just like your regular whoopie pies, but made from pumpkin… So good! Will be making these again. Thanks
Just moved from PA to AZ and Whoopie pies are non existent here so this will come in handy to make my own. Can this be halved successfully since I live alone and don’t need 12. Love your recipes
My maternal family is from the Johnstown PA area and whoopie pies are called Gobs…Whoopie pies are associated with the Amish Markets. When completely cooled and iced, they are wrapped individually in waxed paper. The icing used is a cooked icing. Will try your pumpkin recipe & icing. Thanks.
Can I freeze these ?
Oh No….I just re-read the recipe, you know the one the states that you
CAN half the recipe. Sorry for the post of my first comment.
These came out amazing! Have to hide from the family so they don’t eat them all. The only thing I changed was the oil. We don’t use vegetable oil, too processed for us, but I substituted it with 2 room temp sticks of butter.
Can you use a cookie scoop instead of piping bag?
Hello Gemma!
Love trying your recipes and this one is
calling my name! I was wondering if I could cut this
one in half 12 is too many for me (did I just say that?? lol).